What fruit are you growing: Prayer, faith, love, service, peace? We are known by how we live our life!
The Fruit of Your Life
Month: February 2025
Stronghold of the Strong
What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.”— St. Augustine
How is your interior life?
“Not to try to live in interior silence is equivalent to giving up the effort to lead a truly Christian life. The Christian life is a life of faith, lived in the invisible for what is invisible. Anyone who is not in constant contact with the invisible world runs the risk of remaining always on the threshold of a true Christian life. … Solitude is the stronghold of the strong. Strength is an active virtue, and our power of keeping silence marks the level of our capacity for action. ‘Without this interior cell, we would be incapable of doing great things, either for ourselves or for others.'” —Raoul Plus, S.J
Gods Secret
As we read the story of our salvation history in the bible, we see that Israel discovered God had only one motivation, to show gratuitous love. He loved His people so much that He gave his only Son and gave us an everlasting love. But do you believe the words of St John that God IS love?
God’s very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange. (CCC 221)
And to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God’s should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. (Ephesians 3:9-12)
The Presence of God
Come to me all you that are weary and are carrying a burdened I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me, get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t let anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly. (Matthew 11:27, The Message)
Here I am, Lord. I come to seek your presence. I long for your healing power. Amen
Quicken Us
Do you now possess the needed strength to perfectly accomplish such holy requirements?
To love our eternal King with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our minds and with all our strength?
We do not.
We are weak and inconsistent, and often buffeted by fear and pride and selfishness. But being impoverished and ill-equipped as we are, we will look to the grace of God and to the sanctifying work of the Spirit to accomplish his purposes in and through us this day, as we, in grateful response, seek to choose that which pleases him.
We open our hearts anew to you this morning, O Lord, that the love of the Father and the life of Christ and the breath of the Spirit would quicken within us a greater affection for your ways.
Work your will in us, Lord Christ.
From A Liturgy of the Hours: Daybreak, Every Moment Holy
A Practice of Love
Our Father’s greatest desire is that we love our eternal King with all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds, and with all our strength.
And how would you show this love?
By remembering him at all times.
By cultivating thankfulness for his many blessings, and trusting his good providence
for the meeting of our needs.
By loving all whose lives intersect our own.
By choosing to serve rather than to be served, to be wounded rather than to wound, and by bearing patiently with the failings of others, extending the same kindness, mercy, and compassion that God in Christ has so graciously offered us.
We would also love him by serving with faithfulness and due passion in our various vocations, by delighting in all things he has created for our benefit and pleasure, and by caring well for all he has given us to steward.
O children of the Living God, you would do well to practice your love in these ways today!
From A Liturgy of the Hours: Daybreak, Every Moment Holy
Say No To Anxious Thoughts
Jesus shows us how to live. In addition to casting all our anxieties onto Him, we are to be down to earth with each other. For “God has had it with the proud, But takes delight in just plain people.”
So be content with who you are, and don’t put on airs. God’s strong hand is on you; he’ll promote you at the right time. Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you. 1 Peter 5:7 (MSG)
Are you struggling with anxious thoughts? Just say no! Reorient yourself to Christ and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to who God meant you to be and go set the world on fire!
Brain Rot
It’s a problem….scrolling social media. Even Pope Francis recently stated concern about the “brain rot” produced by “scrolling.” Are you enslaved to social media?
The Pope noted concern about the “brain rot” caused by the addiction to constant scrolling on social media, that people needed to be taught about this, and learn to be conscious about taking in information.
Continue reading “Brain Rot”
Smitten With Goodness 